Want to Post a New Topic on the H.U.R.T. Blog?

I've posted the photos I took at Peacock yesterday (all 328 of them). I'm a true amateur, so I apologize for the blurriness and bad photos. If you see one that you'd like, just take down the number(s) and e-mail them to me @ cetacean6@hotmail.com . I'll e-mail you the full resolution photos. Here's the link. Good job to everyone who ran yesterday! -Rob

I came down the Kealia Trail last Saturday morning convinced that I was done. I had 38 miles on my feet and was ready to call it a day, and more importantly my quads were telling me they didn't like me very much. But when I got to the bottom I let the morning crowd con me into going back up. Actually they would have let me go home, but I was too macho to admit I was quiting so I followed them back up. I finished the day with almost 54 miles on my feet.

It felt good. However by Monday my right knee was giving me a bit of a problem. Nothing serious but I skipped my Monday run, and it put me even on where I would have been if I had taken it easy on Saturday and done the Monday. It set me to thinking about listening to one's body, and I was reminded of an old post I made last year when we lost a few people to injury. I pulled out the old post and reread it. It applies to us all, beginner, intermediate, and old trail 'pro' . I post it again in the hopes that it reminds us all that we are made of flesh (muscle, tendon, ligaments) and bone; all tissues that respond to our demands or mistreatment as the case may be.

We are now entering the long haul of Peacocks and HURT. The answers for most of us lie in the simple phrase 'Time on Feet." It doesn't matter how fast you do a Peacock loop, what matters is how many you can do. And often the amount of time on feet depends on the long term development curve of your own body. It can not be short cut without increasing the possibility of injury.

I headed out toward Dillingham before the Friday afternoon rush hour fouled the roads and brought the flow of traffic to a standstill. Made it there in less than an hour and with surprisingly easy driving.

Moving along the bottom of long road by 4:10, I was hoofing it up the quickly sloping road with an extra gallon of water on my back. The going was slow, very slow at first, and the longer and higher the trudge the heavier that extra gallon became. If you have not had the pleasure of doing long road I have to tell you that the first mile is pretty flat, and the 1 mile marker sits at the base of a large tree that marks the first real steep. But the road is wide and smooth asphalt making it just a 'dig-in and do it' kind of up. Farther up, at the 1.5 mile marker the road moves through a gate and becomes narrower, older, and rougher, as it turns into the first valley. There the trees get a little taller at the sides of the road offering small patches of shade in the afternoon sun, false promises of relief from the humid warmth that rises off the old asphalt and the heat of the late afternoon sun. Moving toward the back of the valley the road hair-pins and heads up once again on the first of a long succession of switchbacks.

If you haven't run much at Peacocks and are still intent on doing a double loop I recommend you check out Last year's information post by Mike Muench and Sean Price. This is a must read for anyone who does not have the course memorized in daylight, and dark and stormy night. You might also want to check out some of the post race posts from last year's 54.

I would also like to remind everyone that this year's race, like last years, will start at Dillingham and probably later than 4:00 am. That means Long Road in the late morning sun, and for the slower of us, the second time in the dark. Please think about this and how the convenient training schedules are working around the harsh reality of a sunny hot endless up. Long Road is quite different under the bright glare of the sun. And not to be pedantic-- I'd like to point out that going up and down Long Road twice can convince your legs that they are made of warm rubber. In the next weeks it might be a good idea to end you run with an extra Long Road Repeat just to get a feel for it. Surviving this 'near death' situation while training can do much to boost confidence, but failure to visit this horror is certain to relegate you to an endless nightmare.

Finally one point, off topic to Peacocks. I ran a Manoa-Nu'uanu repeat today. Off behind were the stash used to be is a pile of clothes and gear from what looks like a camping attempt. It appears transients are staying back there from time to time. I am not saying there is a problem, But I am saying that if you come down that way in the later afternoon or at night you should be aware there may be people around who we don't normally encounter. Exercise reasonable caution.

By the way...The Hurt loop is in pretty good shape at this point in time. Its a good time to get out there and begin real training.

Race Director PJ has decided to only have one aid station out on the course this year. The aid station will be at the second road crossing or where Kalawahine, the road, and concrete hill all meet. This aid station will be staffed by Cheryl and Marian. That means no whining and be nice when you come by here.

Of course there will also be aid at the start/finish.

PJ didn't say this so this is just me talking here. She probably decided to do it this way since there was so much talk about how short the loop really is and if it is as short as all those people were saying, one aid station is enough! Again, PJ didn't really say that.

What she said is that this race really is the start of H.U.R.T. training and that people need to get used to carrying water and what they need as practice for the H.U.R.T. 100.

There is no parking above the second gate- please park on Makiki Heights Road below the Nature Center entrance. There will be very limited parking in the lower lot. The road to the Start is a "whisper zone". Parking down at the water tank is not a bad idea either.

Check-in race morning. Runners are required to notify aid station personnel if they drop out of the race.

Since the Triple Trek starts at 5:30 a.m., participants in the race may wish to carry a small flashlight till after daylight.

Slower runners please be courteous and step aside for faster runners. Hikers have the right-of-way.Bridges along the course are slippery- use extreme caution! And, conditions may be very muddy this year.

The course will be marked- listen for instructions at your start.

There will be aid stations on Roundtop Drive (about 3.5 miles from the start), later on Tantalus Drive (about 7 miles from the start), and at the Start/Finish line. The two road crossings at the Roundtop Drive and Tantalus Road aid stations require your extreme caution while crossing the road- runners will be responsible for their own safety.

Water and Succeed electrolyte-carbo drink (that we use at HURT100), pretzels and cookies will be at the aid stations. Provide for your own special needs. We will have an assortment of sodas at the Start-Finish, as well.

Finish Line closes at 2 PM; runners must leave the Start-Finish line for the third loop no later than 11:30.

Roundtop aid station will close at noon, and Tantalus-Concrete Road aid station at 1:15 PM.

Since there was so much discussion and comment regarding Trek loops last week, Julie Ng was nice enough to send in this link to the Trek route that she mapped out using her Garmin. This is pretty cool and I am all for technology. However the Garmin is wrong. The loops are definitely 10 miles. Don't be fooled by any less distance. OK, enough said.

I think we have a photographer who likes taking photos of our races. Peter Daspit dropped off 5 CD's of images this morning.

You can see the photos by clicking on the links below. He has them organized chronologically. I have them uploaded and labeled the same (hopefully). In any case, enjoy and tell Peter thank you the next time you see him.

Once you open the album, click on the first photo in the upper left and it will enlarge, click through the rest of the album and enjoy.

Saturday's Maunawili Out & Back was a great day on the trails. Marian and Neal Yasuda put on a fantastic race with incredible post race food. If you missed it, you really missed it!

Sure the trail was a bit slippery and overgrown in spots but I am pretty sure most everyone had a great time. A few people ran into some hydration and/or nutrition problems but for many this race is run very competitively and everyone wants to get back for Marian's great food.

There will be lots of photos coming soon. I heard something like over 1500 images were taken and editing down from that number. I will post them as soon as I get them.

For now, here are the results. Again, we apologize if there are any errors or misspellings. Trying to do the best we can with all the runners we have showing up to run.

Put the next race on your calendar: The Tantalus Triple Trek is Saturday September 5 starting at 5:30 a.m.